MANY of you, on reading a spokesman for the enormous, multi-million pound West Way development saying ‘it has not been easy for us’ today, might find yourself falling off your chairs.

The spokesman in question was from Savills (the global real estate services provider listed on the London Stock Exchange), and was speaking on behalf of the Botley Development Group, of which one of the key partners is Mace (the global construction firm with annual turnover in excess of £2 billion).

No one would doubt for a second that all those behind the West Way development have had a pretty scary year in 2020 – there is no doubt that their profits will have plummeted.

However, we also have very little doubt that those at the top of the companies involved are mostly exactly as comfortable as they ever were before any of this happened.

The man from Savills himself, speaking to Vale of White Horse District Council on Wednesday, might have had a genuinely tough year himself – but to speak on behalf of those firms and try to gain sympathy for their plight feels misguided.

We sometimes think of the global recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic a bit like a rocky beach baking in the hot sun.

All the different rock pools have different amounts of water in and the sun will evaporate the same amount of water from the top of each.

However for those shallow pools, losing an inch of water will dry them out – while a deep pool can loose an inch and still have plenty of water left.

Similarly, even if everyone on Earth lost 10 per cent of their wealth from this pandemic, for some people that would just mean one less holiday next year, while for others it could mean losing their home.

We would like to see what reaction the chief executive of Mace would get if he told the public 'it has not been easy for me' in order to get an extra storey on his new tower block at Botley.